Measuring Nothing, Repeatedly

Null experiments in physics

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Authors
Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon Published
December 2019

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There have been many recent discussions of the 'replication crisis' in psychology and other social sciences. This has been attributed, in part, to the fact that researchers hesitate to submit null results and journals fail to publish such results. In this book Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon analyze what constitutes a null result and present evidence, covering a 400-year history, that null results play significant roles in physics.

Copyright © 2019 Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Online ISBN: 978-1-64327-738-7 • Print ISBN: 978-1-64327-735-6

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Front matter

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Pages 1-1 to 1-7

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Introduction

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 2-1 to 2-10

Galileo and free fall

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 3-1 to 3-10

Newton's pendulum experiment and replications by Bessel and Potter

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 4-1 to 4-9

The Eötvös torsional pendulum

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 5-1 to 5-32

The Fifth Force and Eötvös redux

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 6-1 to 6-12

Do falling bodies move south?

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 7-1 to 7-24

The Michelson–Morley experiments of 1881 and 1887

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 8-1 to 8-20

Dayton Miller and the 'cosmic' solution

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 9-1 to 9-18

Physics beyond the standard model

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 10-1 to 10-21

Neutrinoless double beta decay

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Pages 11-1 to 11-12

Conclusion

Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon

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Affiliations

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

About the authors

Allan Franklin is a professor of physics emeritus at the University of Colorado. He began his career as an experimental high-energy physicist and later changed his research area to history and philosophy of science, particularly on the roles of experiments. He has twice been chair of the Forum on the History of Physics of the American Physical Society and served two terms on the Executive Council of the Philosophy of Science Association. In 2016, Franklin received the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society. He is the author of eleven books including most recently Shifting Standards: Experiments in Particle Physics in the Twentieth Century, What Makes a Good Experiment?: Reasons and Roles in Science, and Is It the Same Result? Replication in Physics.

Ronald Laymon is professor of philosophy emeritus at the Ohio State University where he specialized in the history and philosophy of science. He has published widely, was the recipient of multiple National Science Foundation research grants, was a fellow at the Center for the Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and a resident scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation's villa in Bellagio. In 1995, he took advantage of an early retirement option and completed a law degree at the University of Chicago School of Law in 1997. He then went on to practice large-scale commercial litigation at the Jones Day law firm, where he had the good fortune to serve as second chair on a case before the United States Supreme Court. Now retired from the full-time practice of law, Laymon does consulting work for a biotech, intellectual property firm that facilitates the open source creation of therapeutic technologies. Retirement has also made it possible for Laymon to resurrect his interest and earlier work in the history and philosophy of science.